Magistri Mei: Beethoven - Raum

Magistri Mei is a cycle of pieces which deals with the weight and legacy of western classical music tradition. I assume a particular heritage of rupture, as the very notion of tradition as I understand it impels me to disrupt it. This particular piece a petit hommage to Ludwig van Beethoven’s ideas of motivic transformation, that I try to explore not only through traditional development, but also through the reflexion on how one can live and feel a peculiar time and space, coexisting in harmonious ways and revealing hidden features of the individuality through the superimposition of different periodic features. The details of the resonance of a sound in a particular space can shape our awareness of that architectural absorbing sensation, as well our perception of a musical event. In these short pieces, the musicians should be able to keep absolute tempi as much as possible, trying to move in the performance space, not adapting tempo to the space, but space to the tempo. Resonances should be explored and evoke Beethoven’s spirit in strength and grace, in passion and joy. The music should be played by heart and Beethoven should be kept in the musicians hearts. The score indicates the musician to perform in ways such as [resonate], [echo], or [intimate] like. The musician should find their own path through the hall and creatively play against surfaces such as walls, ceiling, floor, absorbent materials next to the audience and other ways that may transmite such qualities and feelings. It’s part of the collective composition „NEUE KRAFT FÜHLEND“/ „FEELING NEW STRENGTH“, part of Muziek Biennale Niederrhein 2020/2021, commissioned and generously supported by the Kulturraum Niederrhein e.V. It is dedicated to Kunsu and Gerhard, long time friends and masters of disruption, revolution and continuous musical subversion, which constitute a rare sight in the artistic world dreariness.